St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-21
BLACK HILLS JUSTICE.
A Popular Sentiment in That Section
That officials Are Not Doing
Their Whole Duty.
Defaulting officials and Murderers Al
lowed to Escape Through Errors
or Technicalties.
AS an Old Miner. Tersely Expresses
II, ever Glttin' n ID Sight
Too CiviliZed.''
The Vieilantes Make a Bad Break NJ
Lead City--The Rich Silver
Find at Rapid City.
special Correspopdence of the Globe,

DEADwooD, Oak, March 1S.-Dur-
ing the past ten days the Black Hills
have not lacked for sensations. Deadwood,
like the Peerybngle's tea-kettle. began
it, with the release by technical flaw of
four indicted eX-officialS of this Q4awrence)
county. This case revived public interest
in the carnival of official SQuandering and
stealing of past years that has helped to
plunge the county into debt nearly million
dollars. This is ancient history here; 1t has
been going on almost since the county was
organized. unchecked, until nearly every
branch of the public service is tainted in
some way and the cOnScienceS of nearly all
reputable citizens have become calloused to
public dishonesty or their tongues silenced.
Discoveries made iii 1885 of the financial
eccentricitieS of the county commissioners
were so extensive and rash as to lend hope
of reform and to cause popular uprising.
a great indignation meeting at Deadwood,
the appointment of citizens committee Of
fifteen to investigate and prosecute, and the
placing in its hands of large fund Tor that
purpose raised by popular subscription in
all parts of the county; the inn
through the county records and a thorough
overhaulng of everything followed. Par
ticulars of startling fraTGs in county bonds
and warrants were from time to time made
public, and finally one of the Implicated
officials turned states evidence. What has
been done? This is the last of the prodi.
giOus and costly investigation up to this writ
ing The committee has never made re-
port The grand jury of the county has
asked them for pointers i'll vain; and the
last one that held inquest into these frauds
made formal presentation to the court
complaining of their inability to obtain
report, the committee to that extent pro-
tecting the REGULATORS they were appointed
and paid to prosecute. Whether there were
50 many OF the committees friends and
assoc ateS who had some of the pork" or
whether their retlcence was dictated by
that mistaken idea of local interest which
SURPRISES such truth for fear Of hurting
the town." l know not; charity gives prefer
ence to the latter theory. However, the
grand jury last year
INDICTED FOUR COUNTY OFFICIALS,
and they were duly put upon trial The
indictment was quashed for flaw so blum
dering as to excite the suspicion that the
district attorney must have made a mis-
were again indicted two weeks ago, and
again Indictment was set aside for another
flaw, equally laundering and equally sug-
gestive, perpetrated by a new district at
1orney. elected mainly OH the demand and
promise of reform in that office. TaXpay-
erS and all who are not in the ring are dis
Outraged, and one constantly hears such
remarks as, well I'd like TO know if there
is an honest man in Lawrence county?"
Another miscarriage of justice by
a techncality followed close on the
heels of these, in the same court. Pat
Casey has just been cleared and turned
loose after two vain attempts to get his case
to trial for murder. The crime was pre-
lneditatdd and cOwardly one, and the facts
all admitted; yet the first grand jury
that sat on it found bill for manslaughter
in the second degree. The fact that some
of the bondsmen- of the accused were al
lowed to sit in the jury is adduced as
an explanation of this extraordinary
Indictment. Be that as it may,
the Judge promptly set the indictment aside
and remanded the ease to another jury. On
the second arraignment. this week, the judge
quashed the second indictment, on motion
of the prisoners counsel, on the ground
that man cannot twice be put in jeopardy
for the same otfense. And by this legal
lugglery Casey goes free without being
tried at ALL There is suspicion out that
the Black Hills is getting more law than
Justice: or, as all old miner expressed it,
Were gittin' id sight too civilized in
this country" .....
JUDGE LYNCH, ALMOST.
The natural results of these perverSiOns
of Justice by its chosen agencies begin to bt
seen. Last week, at Lead City. busy
mining town three miles from here, the
people were near to taking the law int
their own hands; would have done so had
not circumstances prevented. w. L.. Sack
EFT. an old man of the best business ant
social standing, was accused of attempting
rape on the eight-year-old daughter of +;
miner A hearing by Justice Monroe
resulted in his discharge, the evidence
being deemed absurdly inadequate by The
Judge to hold him. At once the cry of jul
dicial corruption was raised by the excited
mob. who threatened Sackett to the extern
that he fed in terror. The fury of the mol
was then leveled at Monroe, and at al
excited public meeting committee was APP
pointed to wait Oh him and demand his OH
cial resgnation-which he fatty refused
He escaped the hands of men who wer
hunting for HIM that night by remaining il
hiding guarded by friends and guns. Tn
meeting offered reward for the rearreS
of Saekett, and he was brought back from
a town abou sixty miles away. whittier h
had fled, and by another judge put unde
bonds to answer the grand jury. He i
now back quietly at work in the Home
stake mills, Of which he is engineer, ant
all Is quiet. The sober, second thoughts o
the Lead CityiteS seems to have brought
better view of the case of Sackett
THE EVCITENENT At RAPID CITY
was of a more innocent if not less unrea
soning nature. Some wood-choppers cam
into town the middle of the week heav
with rocks and a secret, which they Pre-
fessed to have found in canon about tiv
miles west of town. The town and il
daily newspaper at once saw mining booI
looming up at its very doors. 1t was al
nounced that assays of the rock disclose
extraordinary richness in silver, and ava
went the whole town in one of those per
odical mining crazes of the Black Hill:
All available vehicles, private or public
were ordered out; then there was mount
ing in hot haste" ami scrub race for tn
new silver deposits. Two hundred team
were at one time cached in the ravine an
as many hundred claims were Staked by el
cited citizens of every previous condition {
staidness and sobrietv. For few days til
towns streets bore Sabbath stiffness
nav, more than that-and when there wei
no more fields to stake the people settle
down to business again, sheepily, and th
livery men retired to count their ill-gotte
gains" l don't suppose now that PM
erton man could find. with bench wa
rant. Rapid City man who will admit
having taken any stock in the new Silvt
find. The assays thus far authenticity II
ported give the new rock silver in quaint
ties varying from 10 cents. to the ton